prius 2010 hybrid batteries dead at 126000km and up on atleast 3 taxis i know of

5 years in Israel and it is my understanding that it is that way in all / most of Europe.

So far great car - will hit 42K Klm today

 

How do you know it's bad HV battery?

 

You're lucky - for now. The EU want, or should I say insist that taxis become deregulated across Europe. That's great in theory as competition opens up markets and lowers costs, but what they forget is that they regulate the fares so I can't quote a realistic price for the costs involved. Fuel costs have gone up over 40% here since 2007 yet my fares didn't; they went up with the cost of living which is running at 1% or 2% per year. So even with the Prius, fuel costs became a bigger and bigger percentage of outgoings for a reducing income. Pinched with no control over it unlike any other business.

I'm glad I'm out of it, despite not having anything to go to, as taxi insurances this year are going through the roof as a couple insurers have pulled out of the market leaving about 3 insurers. Increases in one year of over 50% are to be expected for those with no accidents like me, which is bordering on unaffordable.God help anyone with an adverse claims experience.

We've cut everything back other than the essentials, the car will be going within the next 6 weeks, though I'm trying to hang on to is as long as I can to travel looking for work. The same applies to the broadband, I need it for job applications but it will be getting cut soon if no job is forthcoming. It's almost like turning back time to the 1930's. I guess things are bad when the electric has to go, but I no longer laugh about that any more; it might happen - and soon. So much for the self employed small business owners being the backbone of the country.

The government are now saying the recession is getting worse but it's not that bad. August was bad because of the Olympics, July was bad because of the heavy rain, June was bad because of the jubilee etc. How about it's bad because it's all ****ed up. The gf has not had a pay rise for nearly five years now and is lucky to have a job.

I think things in Europe are heading bad, though there are also many who are unaffected and think things are just normal. Hard times ahead and I fear we've seen nothing yet.

 

Things will getting much worse as you said in EU. But it will getting even worse in USA later, because it has much more debt than EU. That's one of the reason I always encourage people to conserve their resource, not to buy a new Prius. It seems most people already forget what's happened in house bubble. They still load up their debt to the neck.

Get ready for the ride. It's not going to be pretty. Even if you are middle class and still have a decent paid job, I doubt there will be much difference between you and the poor at the end of the ride.

 

I agree,

The financial system where using will or is already breaking down.

You can not keep building debt.
Its gotta end somewhere.


-Tapatalk

 

not to be harsh but I would think the taxi business/service would be very hard on prius hybrid

 

It is.

Taxi use will sort out the good from the bad and will show up any weaknesses. The thing is, the gen2 Prius (2004-2009) has proved very reliable in taxi use; much more reliable than the various taxi alternatives around the World. It is great on fuel, requires minimal servicing and few replacement parts. It is said that this model of Prius was over engineered to build public trust in hybrids.

The gen3 (2009-) is a much improved car in many ways BUT they also reduced the weight or size of parts whilst at the same time increased their performance or load. It would appear that whilst this may still provide a reliable car for someone who travels 100 miles a day on a highway commute, it isn't proving anywhere near as reliable in a hard city environment; a place where taxis operate.

Now with the various worldwide taxi Prius competitors (the Ford Mondeo in the UK), the price of spare parts are usually quite low and the local taxi garage is more than able to fix them very quickly and competently. With the Prius, some parts are quite expensive (I'm on my THIRD steering motor at about £1,800 fitted!) and are a little more unusual and/or require specialist equipment.

So the Prius gen3 seemed a good buy judging by the reliability of the gen2 in the taxi world, but it now seems the car has many weaknesses under harsh use. With Toyota reducing battery sizes further, yet increasing their performance on other hybrid models, I fear they may lose their reputation for reliability in the future.

 

I very much agree with this.

I said in past, that Gen 2 Prius is in the position of Lexus LS400, the first Lexus Car to build the brand. Toyota spent $1 Billion for R&D. In 6 years they made 500 prototypes total before mass production.
LS400 originally sold for $35K only, to compete with $60K MB. Once they built the reputation, they quickly raised price to $55 in couple of years.
But the biggest money maker for Lexus is the RX300 crossover vehicle, not LS400.

 

Wow. That's a bit troubling to hear about Gen 3.

Yeah, I'm sure Toyota wanted to keep the weight down in order to keep the FE up while also still achieving good crash test results. I'd also imagine they were (and are still) under tremendous pressure to keep costs down to the very unfavorable yen to dollar exchange rate. Take a look at 1 us dollar in yen from january 1,2001 to today - Wolfram|Alpha and consider how large a market the US is for the Prius.

I wouldn't be surprised if Gen 2 was over engineered.

 

Canadian gen2 Prius taxi cover over 400,000 miles on original battery. Hybrids prove very reliable | British Columbia

Greek gen3 Prius taxis have HV batteries failing as low as 80,000 miles. (see comments at beginning of this thread)

 

And if people are in any doubt, 5 years ago I could cover well over £1,000/$1,600 a week if I worked hard and obviously that allowed for a comfortable lifestyle with flexibility. Before I had to quit I was lucky to come out with 15% of that for more hours! Multiply me by thousands or millions of others and you can see why things have ground to a halt over here. Nobody has any money.

 

If the series lll in time proves to have battery pack problems, I see this as possibly being used as an excuse by Toyota not to replace these battery paks under warranty, based on my experience with Toyota since 1976. Perhaps we should have Toyota service clean/inspect these vent fans and certify this service at regular service intervels so this can not happen. Class action would take care of any breach of warranty with proof of certified service/inspection. Toyota does not have a reputation for being generous in warranty matters, especially in repairs this expensive. Thank you for your alert observations!

 

How things differ. Toyota UK do have an excellent record for warranty repairs and this peace of mind is one of the reasons we're a Toyota household. All new cars (not my Prius though) get 100,000 mile 5 year warranty with no quibble.

I believe Toyota USA have a TSB for taxi and/or high use vehicles where the battery fan will be inspected and serviced if required. It does appear this is applicable to the US only as my Toyota dealer had never seen it. I can't find the link but it's on this forum somewhere.

Not sure if it applies to the gen2 or 3 or both. Never a fan of class action just for the hell of it. Usually the only person who wins are the lawyers.

 

Neither am I for the same reason, but it scares them into favorable action if forum conversation is not helpful. Also we have lemon laws in Florida that work. I hope all is well and we will not have to resort to creative solutions.

 

I have no first hand experience of Gen 3 from what I have read however. There where the following engineering improvements in HSD(transaxle mg1/mg2),Inverter,all disc brakes,body redesign (somewhat) and bigger ICE size all which made for a little more overal weight.....Now about the battery it was reconfig with different placement of dissconnect......but pretty much stayed same with 28 cell nimh and 201vdc /7.2 vdccell 6.5ah